An Investigation of International Students' Linguistic and Sociocultural Adjustments in the UK

英国一直是仅次于美国的第二大最受国际学生欢迎的留学目的地(联合国教科文组织2022)。随着英国脱离欧盟和新冠肺炎疫情(HESA，2022年)，国际学生的稳步增长更加引人注目。英国教育的全球化性质并不是由国际学生的存在直接造成的，而是由于他们融入了社区(英国文化协会，2014)。已经发现(Page，2019，Lu，2021)国际学生的分离会导致他们的社交和学习表现不佳，甚至会危及他们的人身安全。这就是为什么平等、多样性和包容性(EDI)政策目前在英国受到高度重视的原因。因此，由于学生、大学和整个英国社会的长期利益，国际学生的融合是EDI概念扩展的主要因素(英国文化协会，2014，Bender等人，2019年)。研究发现，生产性融合有利于旅居者的学习和社会满意度(Merola et al，2019，Lu，2021)，并可以提高大学教职员工的多元文化意识，使融合成为一个互动的过程(Wang&Moskal，2019)。国际学生的高度融合也能减少英国社会中的种族歧视，《黑人生活也是命》(Francis&Wright-Riueur，2021)和《亚洲仇恨》(Jeung，2021)的兴起使得与国际学生的接触变得更加迫切和必要。因此，了解旅居者的适应经历，以实现高质量的以学生为中心的氛围(Schartner&Young，2016)以及EDI在英国大学中的应用是很重要的。有大量研究探讨了旅居者在英国的适应情况。然而，不同的领域被分开研究，缺乏对它们之间动态相互关系的研究(周和托德曼，2009)。此外，很少有研究探讨国际学生采用什么策略来应对这种调整。此外，大多数研究探讨了旅居者在正式学术学习中的语言体验，但缺乏对他们在交际社会环境中的语言适应的研究，这进一步限制了对语言能力和社会能力之间互动关系的调查。它试图探索这两个领域之间的动态相互关系。这项研究还打算探索旅居者采取什么策略来应对这种适应。我的博士研究调查了自主的中国旅居者在英国的语言和社会经历，特别关注他们如何在不同的社交网络中寻求语言和非语言接触的负担。中国留学生目前是英国最大的国际学生群体(HESA，2021)，这些留学生大多进行低水平的融合(Wu，2014，Lu，2021)。因此，对中国旅居者经历的良好理解为这项博士后实地考察工作奠定了坚实的基础。这项博士后研究，如果得到资助，将以我的博士研究成果为基础，通过纳入更多样化的国际参与者群体，提供全面的理解和更敏锐的见解。我博士学位的研究结果表明，‘种族认同’在融合中起着至关重要的作用。此外，更好地了解参与者在适应过程中的障碍可以更清楚地描述如何提供更有针对性的支持，以最大限度地减少旅居者在旅途中遇到的学习和文化冲击。

The UK has consistently remained as the second most popular study destination for international students behind only the US (UNESCO 2022). The steady growth of international students is more remarkable alongside the UK's departure from the European Union and the COVID-19 pandemic (HESA, 2022). The globalised nature of education in the UK is not directly caused by the presence of international students, but due to the inclusion of them in communities (British Council, 2014). It has been found (Page, 2019, Lu, 2021) separation of international students can cause their poor social and academic performance, and even can risk their personal safety. That is why Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) policy has currently been highly emphasized in the UK.Therefore, the integration of international students is a principal factor in the expanding concept of EDI due to the long-term benefits for students, universities, and the whole UK society (British Council, 2014, Bender et al, 2019). It has been found that productive integration benefits sojourners' learning and social satisfaction (Merola et al, 2019, Lu, 2021), and can enhance university staff's multicultural awareness to make the integration an interactive process (Wang & Moskal, 2019). International students' high-level integration can also reduce the discrimination of race in the UK society, the 'Black Lives Matter' (Francis & Wright-Rigueur, 2021) and 'Asian Hate' (Jeung 2021) surge make the engagement with international students more urgent and necessary.Thus, it is important to understand the adjustment experiences of sojourners to achieve a high-quality 'student-centered ethos' (Schartner & Young, 2016) and the application of EDI across UK universities. There is ample research that explores sojourners' adjustments in the UK. However, different domains have been researched separately, and there is a lack of research that looks into the dynamic interrelationships between them (Zhou & Todman, 2009). Also, there is little research that probes what strategies international students employ to cope with such adjustments. Additionally, most of the research explores sojourners' language experience in formal academic learning, but a lack of research investigating their language adjustments in communicative social settings, which further limits the contribution to the investigation of interactions between linguistic competencies and social abilities.Following this, this postdoctoral research aims to investigate international students' adjustments in the UK particularly through linguistic and sociocultural domains. It seeks to explore the dynamic interrelationships between the two domains. This research also intends to probe what strategies sojourners employ to cope with such adjustments.My doctorate research investigated autonomous Chinese sojourners' language and social experiences in the UK particularly focused on how they sought affordances in diverse social networks for linguistic and non-linguistic encounters. Chinese sojourners are currently the largest group of international students in the UK (HESA, 2021), and these sojourners, mostly, conduct low-level integration (Wu, 2014, Lu, 2021). Therefore, a good understanding of Chinese sojourners' experiences lays a robust foundation for this postdoctoral fieldwork. This postdoctoral research, if funded, will build on my doctoral findings to offer comprehensive understanding and sharper insights by including a more diverse group of international participants. The findings of my doctorate research have shown that 'ethnic identity' plays a crucial role in integration. Also, a better understanding of participants' barriers during their adjustments can portray a clearer picture of how to provide more focused support to minimise sojourners' encountering learning and culture shocks during this journey.